A quick and dirty guide to PLA rigs and vests
Between the holidays and New Year’s celebrations, I don’t exactly have the time to manually update the webpage. But I also don’t want to slack off in regards to creating new content, so here’s my compromise: this is a quick and dirty guide to PLA rigs and vests. Hopefully this will be educational in those finishing or researching their PLA kit impressions.
Update: You can find info regarding how to start your PLA kit HERE.
This post will have two sections. That is rigs and vests. Please bear in mind that this post is not all-conclusive. It’s mainly here to provide options with a bit of history.
Rigs:
Type-81 Rig
The Type-81 rig is derived from the legendary 'Chicom rig', as seen in wide use by North Vietnamese and Vietcong forces during the Vietnam War. The Type-81 rig was introduced around the same time as the Type-81 rifle. Both saw service during the Sino-Vietnamese border clashes during the 80s. Today the Type-81 rig still sees use with border protection forces, militia, military reserve, and of course -during training.
Type 06/95 Rig
As the Chinese army modernized, the traditional 'Chicom rigs' as seen during the Cold War began to be phased out. In the early 90s, the Type-91 rig was introduced as a woodland patterned 'modern' personal combat gear. That was largely overshadowed with the introduction of the QBZ-95 rifle, and the Type-95 rig. In 2007, a molle LBV version was introduced. Both are still in widespread use with the People's Liberation Army, as of 2017. It must be noted that the Type 06 molle LBV is usually configured to look like the Type-95 rig during training and photo ops.
Vests:
Type 04/06 Body Armor
The People's Liberation Army has been experimenting with body armor for a few decades. The main issue with the PLA is that its immense size makes the standardization of body armor extremely costly. As such, body armor can be seen only with rapid response and special operation forces, or with those forces where it's likely that PLA troops will face combat. This can be seen in the Chinese mission in Sudan, where PLA forces utilize Type-15 body armor.
Custom HPC Vest
The procurement of PLA equipment is done on a local level. As such, there are many variations and options available, depending on the funds of the unit. Although far from common, there has been times where the PLA uses non-standardize equipment.
Type-15 Body Armor
The UN mission in Sudan has saw the PLA use Type-15 Body Armor. Both the South Sudan unit and Mali unit are equipped with SiC ceramic ballistic plates.
And there we have it. A quick guide to PLA rigs and vests. This article again, is neither complete or comprehensive, and mainly serves as a starting point, or finishing point to your own individual project. Here are some credits, because they are due:
-Some info: from the People's Liberation Army since 1949 by Osprey
-One of our posters on our Facebook Group, the legendary HoiKie.